Son For The Return Home

Barely had Labour List MP, Shane Jones, moved into his new Far North abode than he was out doing the meet-and-greet. It's rare to see a political animal wandering untethered along Kerikeri's main street. It arguably hasn't happened since the election campaign of 2011 and back then there was a whole herd of 'em.

Cynics would suggest there's an election coming up next year but Mr Jones is a garrulous soul and regardless of the topic under discussion his phraseology is entertainment. But even when talking politics he's not one to wear the nondescript suit of rigid party lines accessorised with mediocre opinion.

Shane Geoffrey Jones is of mixed heritage. His grandmother was born in 1892 as the issue of the first recorded marriage between a Maori and a Dalmatian. He's Te Aupouri and Ngai Takoto so how come his name's as Welsh as a proverbial Llanelli leak? That comes from his father's side but he identifies more with the first two ethnicities and the strong sense of community that both engender and besides all that, he grew up practically next to the marae in Awanui.

It was this close-knit world of small town Northland that 13-year-old Shane left to go to St Stephen's Maori Boys' College in Auckland as a boarder - the first of the Jones' Clan to do so - so it's no wonder he was initially very homesick. There were a couple of boys from his area at the school but they were older and if anything got him through those early years it was sheer obstinacy. He wasn't going to be defeated by circumstance and years later that kind of fronting up to a situation is still prevalent. He was taught to speak Maori by his grandmother and Awi Riddell at St Stephen's and those who know about these things say his fluency leans towards an old-fashioned formality. In either language he's been known to spend hours pondering a response (if he's offered the time) and off the cuff he tends to shoot from the lip, to mix metaphors. If his outspokenness doesn't always sit well with those he might be targeting, it carries far more intellectual quality than the kind of populist rhetoric favoured by Hone Harawira.

After college Shane Jones studied politics and economics at Auckland University before finishing his BA degree at Victoria in Wellington and although he read law he definitely didn't want to be a lawyer. He went to the University of Western Australia too and returned to the Far North in 1986 to work on the very early stages of iwi claims. It was here he came into contact with Labour politicians.

"I met Sir Geoffrey Palmer and admired his industriousness and I was in awe of Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas in terms of what they were doing and because they were ruthless doing it," he says candidly.

He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to study at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and after that held numerous senior roles in the public sector, including that of chairman of the Waitangi Fisheries Commission. Of that period in his life he remarks with fundamental flourish:

"I knew there was something bigger than arguing about the shadow of my own mountain."

In 2005 took his seat in the Labour Parliament, ranked 27th on the party list, the highest position given by Labour to someone who wasn't already a Member of Parliament. There have been a couple of pesky peccadilloes to interrupt his political career path but it's something of an irony that at least one immoderation could actually have enhanced his reputation in some quarters. Indeed it could be argued that some of the headlines surrounding Mr Jones say more about the fish bowl tendencies of the political press than they do of the man.

So what's next? Labour's leadership is looking vulnerable but for this story Shane Jones wasn't asked if he wants to be party leader. It's certainly a question for another time and when he does speak out on this or any other subject, rest assured the information will be delivered in compelling terms.